Defective and faulty brake systems on motor vehicles including trucks are hazardous to pedestrians, drivers, passengers and other vehicles. Presently, safety inspections including the examination of brake systems of motor vehicles are performed to reduce the number of vehicles with defective or faulty brake systems operating on the roadways. At present, however, there is no system that can be positioned on the roadway to perform an initial inspection to determine, or to assist an inspector in determining, which vehicles'brake systems warrant an enhanced safety inspection.
One of the current methods for performing such preliminary inspections involves an inspector selecting a small percentage of the vehicles traveling on the roadway to be subjected to an enhanced safety inspection of the vehicle, including the brake system. This current method for choosing which vehicles may be likely to fail a safety inspection as a result of a defective or faulty brake system is subjective and based upon the appearance of the vehicle, the driver, or both. Although this method has resulted in detecting vehicles with defective or faulty brake systems, a more efficient system is needed.